India regains Border Gavaskar Trophy

India regains Border Gavaskar Trophy at Nagpur where they lost it exactly 4 years back. With this we have shown that we are not only equals to Australia but even better than them.

Statistical Highlights

• India has held the trophy 5 times while Australia held it 3 times.
  
• Out of 26 matches, 15 in India and 11 in Australia, India has won 10, lost 10 and drew 6 times. Only Rahul Dravid has played in all 26 of those matches from either side.
  
• Sachin has now played in 49 of the matches which India has won. He has a chance to win his 50th match at his home ground in Mumbai when India plays England in 2nd test.
  
• Australia is losing a series for the first time since Ashes 2005. India is winning more than 1 test in a series for the first time since home series against Sri Lanka in 2005.
• After nadir at Sydney and things looking only worse, India has not lost any of the last 6 encounters against them. Till Sydney, Ricky Ponting as captain had a 31-3 win-loss record including 16 successive wins. Since then they won 2 against West Indies and lost 3 to India.

My predictions

My prediction of a 2-1 defeat has gone horribly wrong. I had predicted a 2-0 loss to England too last year. I am glad that they were wrong. I generally make a pessimistic guess, so that I will have something to cheer about even when India loses. I realise that this approach will not take me long and I need to be lot more realistic and accountable with my predictions.

This proves my strength in accounting about the past through statistics and weakness about predicting the future. Statistics requires just good memory power and regular following. Prediction involves a lot more skill and understanding of the game. Even in Business, Managers are paid to plan and control the future while accountants are paid a pittance to document the past.

My emotions during the series

Indians were dominant throughout the series and I am witnessing this for the first time since 1998 series in India. The matches were quite high scoring and didn't make it as interesting as earlier series. 2003-04 series in Australia was also high scoring but still it was lot more interesting owing to the see-saw contests. Overall, there weren't so many thrilling rides over the series. One moment which did provide some thrills was the 4th day afternoon of the 4th test.

Anil Kumble and Saurav Ganguly have retired. Both of them have done their jobs and have taken Indian cricket to a higher level. It was time for them to go. It is time for even Rahul Dravid to go. His last great contribution came 2.5 years ago with twin fifties in the Jamica Test. India are now at a stage where those legends will not be missed so badly.

Future

After the series Australia has come down from 138 points to 129 points and India has gone up from 109 to 116 to reach second spot in the Test Rankings. There is a lot of cricket coming up over the next one year for Australia, India and South Africa. With the difference of only 13 points there is a good 3 ways battle for the ultimate number one spot. Australian domination will be questioned for the first time since they won in West Indies in 1995. Over the last few years we have only seen fight for No 2 spot between India, England and South Africa and all of them held the position for a brief period of time.

In the present situation, India is favourites to become No. 1.